Expert: PAS Is Losing the Diaspora’s Trust

Sergiu CEBAN, RTA: The results of opinion polls, including closed polling, show that PAS is gradually losing support among Moldovan citizens living abroad. It therefore has to court the diaspora more actively than ever, desperately trying to win back its declining trust. For the ruling party, the stakes could hardly be higher: losing such a significant segment of the electorate could have catastrophic consequences as early as in the next election cycle. Last week’s Diaspora Forum-2026 was designed to be a landmark event, symbolising the strong ties between the government and Moldovan citizens living abroad. The organisers focused on the role of the diaspora as a “strategic partner” of the state and on its contribution to building a European Moldova. The programme featured panel discussions, thematic workshops and opportunities for direct engagement with government institutions. For the first time, representatives of the diaspora were given access to 22 government agencies. However, the event laid bare the central paradox: the diaspora, once a key political backer and architect of the current regime, has in just a few years devolved in its most disillusioned observer. The forum thus degenerated into yet another PR stunt, with fine-sounding slogans and staged photo shoots masking a complete lack of answers to the pressing problems faced by our compatriots who did not leave their homeland because life was good. Consular services, whose quality leaves much to be desired; the recognition of educational and professional qualifications obtained abroad; the protection of labour and social rights; real economic incentives and mechanisms for returning home – all these pressing issues were carefully sidestepped. It is worth recalling that Maia Sandu and PAS came to power largely thanks to the unprecedented mobilisation of citizens living abroad. Mass turnout among the diaspora, particularly in EU countries, helped secure victory in the crucial elections of 2020-2021 and, subsequently, in the 2024 presidential election when Sandu suffered a resounding defeat at home, alongside the referendum on European integration, and the 2025 parliamentary election. Without the diaspora vote, which accounts for tens of percentage points of the overall vote, PAS would not have secured the monopoly on power it enjoys today. The ruling party is well aware of this. It therefore continues to view its compatriots abroad as a “voting bloc that votes the right way”. Yet it remembers them only in two situations: when it needs to plug holes in the budget with millions in remittances and when election campaigns roll around. This exploitative approach may well explain the growing crisis of trust between the diaspora and the current authorities. By backing pro-European forces – and, for the most part, a single political party – the diaspora voted for specific changes in Moldova: an uncompromising fight against corruption, a European perspective and, above all, an improvement in living standards in the country that would make a return possible. In practice, however, our compatriots are witnessing rising poverty within the country, the imitation of reforms, a personnel policy based on loyalty rather than competence, and few tangible improvements for those who have stayed or wish to return. Eventually, the “return home” slogans came up against harsh reality. The situation surrounding the Prima Casă programme is particularly telling. On 1 April, the government stopped accepting new applications for compensation under the programme after exhausting the funds allocated in the budget. The state-guarantee mechanism itself remained in place, but it was precisely the compensation component crucial to making housing affordable that was effectively put on hold. Yet the programme had been one of the key incentives for those considering a return to Moldova. Instead of the promised modernisation, returning citizens continue to face systemic corruption, bureaucratic pressure and a low level of digitalisation. It is telling that one of the participants at the Diaspora Forum-2026 said outright that those who try to ask tough questions about the real state of affairs feel as though they are enemies of the people, while getting the microphone to speak to the president has become a real quest. Cosmetic measures, such as minor concessions over children’s admission to schools, do little to address the fundamental problems facing the diaspora, whose members still do not feel that their rights are being adequately protected. Lofty declarations about the European path and the diaspora’s role as “Moldova’s ambassadors” in the EU sound like nothing more than an attempt to flatter them into continued loyalty. It is equally striking that, against the backdrop of a massive brain drain and tearful pledges to bring skilled workers back home, the authorities are stepping up the recruitment of cheap labour from South-East Asia. The government’s priorities could hardly be clearer, and they plainly contradict its rhetoric. It is difficult to interpret this as anything other than a clear signal that Moldova has little interest in its own citizens who can develop the economy. The authorities’ double standards towards different diaspora groups are equally hard to overlook. While Moldovans living in EU countries are treated as a valuable electoral asset and receive increased attention, the diaspora in Russia, by contrast, is treated as an undesirable constituency, largely ignored and effectively excluded from the country’s socio-political agenda. This is a blatantly cynical calculation on PAS’s part: what matters to the ruling party is clearly not the well-being of Moldovan citizens as a whole, regardless of where they live, but the ability to use those diaspora groups whose votes can deliver the desired electoral outcome. Consequently, all the authorities’ rhetorical flirting with the diaspora is frankly hypocritical, given their failure to make any real progress in addressing the needs of this group of citizens. Those who have left are increasingly coming to realise that they are viewed merely as a convenient and manageable electoral bloc. Such an attitude inevitably leads to disillusionment, including among former ardent supporters of PAS, many of whom are beginning to see that the current policies have run their course, while the public has lost confidence in them. The main intrigue of the forthcoming elections is whether the majority of the diaspora will once again heed calls to mobilise, given the depth of the resentment that has built up. History teaches us that people’s patience is not limitless and that the very force that propelled PAS to power could also bring it down, simply by staying away from the polls or voting for alternative political forces.